My Life Timeline

This is something I have considered numerous times in my head, but never really put to paper (or computer), but recently I've been more motivated to figure things out, get things done, and be an adult haha. So, this is my Tentative Life Timeline where all events are subject to change :D

August 2007 - August 2009 = Teaching in Taiwan and taking online Grad classes

August 2009 - May 2010 = Graduate school
(with hopes to graduate, depending on how many classes I was able to take in Taiwan)

Summer 2010 = Either an international trip or large road trip :D

2010 - 2015 = Computer or advertising specific job with international possibilities

Summer 2015 = if not moving up in current job (or completely in love with it), start my own web design firm or change to new job
= if not married but financially established start to adopt kids / if married better have at least one child by now :D

2015 - 2019 = continue working and raising a family

2019 - 2022 = concentrate on Research doctorate

2023 - 2035 = if happy with current job continue, otherwise change to college professor

2036 - 2040 = travel the world to all the places I still want to go and haven't been and continue loving life :D

A Taste of Home

So, being here in this place all by myself can get lonely occasionally, I have been lucky with having a roommate that likes to do similar things as me and who likes to hang out with me :D so I haven't had much homesickness or anything like that. But it can still happen, so I do what I can to make this place feel like home to me! So I always have to bring things that remind me of home and the people I miss. I don't have nearly as many picture framed pictures as I did last time due to suitcase weights this time, but I still have plenty of pictures to look at when I need to. Lucky for me paper and pictures are so lightweight!

Chinese Lessons!!!

I registered for Chinese lessons tonight with Alida, Jason, and Patrick. It's at the Taipei Language Institute. Kelly told us about the classes, because she takes lessons there also. It's called the Chinese Survival Course, only 8 Sunday sessions from 2:30-5:30. It cost 5,000NT (around $150) and that's including all materials and the registration fee. I think that's a pretty good price for it. And it seems like a very intense course, so I'm super excited :D:D

Celebrating 22 years

Dinner at Citizen Cain. Jason, Amanda, Chris, Kelly, me, Patrick, Alida and Leon.

Alida, Gretchen and me enjoying the club, Roxy 99.

Me and Chris

How they got me to dance I'll never know, might have been the shots...sorry mom :P

Heading home at 3am, very sucessful birthday!!

Many more at www.rhoslynn.shutterfly.com

Turning 22

So I can't decide if I'm looking forward to my birthday or not and if I'll get homesick or not. Am I grown up yet?? Because I don't feel like it. I was still getting used to being a teenager and now it's 22. Sure that's not really old, but for only being 22 I've gone through a lot more than I ever expected. It's been good and bad: I've watched people come and go in my life either through death or just time to be done. I've dealt with really bad depression and survived (something I never thought would happen). I graduated college in 3 years and am now planning graduate school (yes, I'm a dork, there are many lists and schedules being made!). I've traveled the world a few times and am currently living in a beautiful country that I love like a second home doing my dream job of teaching little kids. I couldn't be much happier at this moment except for the fact that my location now keeps me away from so many I love.

I understand why I love computers so much because I'm more connected to people now than ever before. I think I even talk to my sister more often now than I did when I was home, so that is one thing keeping me strong. How I did this before with once a month phone calls I will never know and I know I struggled a lot then with homesickness. Now when I'm feeling the slightest homesick, I put on my headset and call my mommy through my computer. I really haven't felt homesick at all in these 5 weeks because I can stay so connected and because I have an awesome roommate.

I have been very lucky throughout the 22 years of my life, very blessed, very loved. I may not have always seen it as so, but I always knew that there were so many people who loved me. Despite the hardest times I've gone through there has always been someone there, but that was never the problem. It is very easy to be loved, to feel loved and to know you are loved, it was always a matter of me loving myself. That was the hard part, but it's gotten better. I am at a good point in my life and it's nice. But the fact that things are so good of course makes my mind wonder...but I can never stop thinking, evaluating, questioning things...and I will never know which parent I got that from!!

It's been too long...

I haven't written for awhile. It's been a busy time. Holidays at school created chaos and then making up those days required work on Saturday. Sunday though I got to go on a trip with the church Gretchen and I recently joined.

It was a lot of fun despite the fact that we gave up our one-day weekend for a full day outing. We went to Keelung which is in the Northeast of the island, close to the ocean. We went to a "sister church" and their worship service in the morning and explored the area all afternoon. We went to an old area that used to be a gold mine and then to the Gold Ecological Park which had museums about when the whole area used to be a big mining area. It was very interesting.

I posted 5 pictures here but because it is so difficult and time consuming to load them all into this blog I started a Shutterfly account (www.rhoslynn.shutterfly.com) where you can view them all in an order you want :) I have all the pictures from this trip up there, but I don't have captions on them yet. It's almost midnight and I need to go to bed, so for now use your imagination with the captions haha.

Gretchen and I enjoying the view

This one's for Dad, your homework: name this plant/flower.

Our hotness :P

The old area of the city. Has a lot of commercial shops now, but it's still very neat, and very crowded.

Just one of the amazing views!